Lev Parnas on Capitol Hill Wednesday.Credit score...Erin Schaff/The New York OccasionsLev Parnas, a former affiliate of Rudolph W. Giuliani who has
Lev Parnas, a former affiliate of Rudolph W. Giuliani who has supplied to testify on the impeachment trial, arrived in Washington on Wednesday to point out assist for what his lawyer known as “a good trial.”
Mr. Parnas, who flew in from Florida and met his lawyer in addition to a swarm of reporters at Washington Union Station close to the Capitol, mentioned he was on the town to “take a look at the senators and have them take a look at me and see that we have to name witnesses. The reality wants to return out. I’m right here.”
Mr. Parnas was concerned within the marketing campaign to stress Ukraine and described himself as “probably the most vital witnesses.”
The cameras then adopted Mr. Parnas as he walked towards the Capitol.
“It’s humorous, I’ve been to Washington,” Mr. Parnas mentioned, an obvious reference to the various Republican donor occasions he has attended within the metropolis and his involvement in conferences to plan the stress marketing campaign. And but, he mentioned, “That is my first time being out of the Trump lodge.”
As he neared the Capitol, a small crowd of supporters chanted, “Let Lev converse.”
Alongside his legal professionals, Mr. Parnas stopped to snap selfies with a few of the protesters on his method to the workplace of Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority chief, the place he picked up passes for the impeachment trial.
Mr. Parnas, who was charged in October with federal marketing campaign finance crimes, can not attend the trial as a result of he’s carrying an ankle-monitoring machine as a situation of his bail. His lawyer, Joseph A. Bondy, deliberate to attend.
“How do you get to the reality in case you don’t have witnesses?” Mr. Bondy mentioned.
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of many few Republicans overtly weighing whether or not to vote to name witnesses within the impeachment trial, met privately for about half an hour with Senator Mitch McConnell on Wednesday morning.
Although she has mentioned in current days she was “curious” to listen to from John R. Bolton, Mr. Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser, Ms. Murkowski saved her playing cards tucked in opposition to her chest on Wednesday.
“I’m not going to share my private ideas with you this morning,” she mentioned rising for the assembly. She acknowledged solely that she must decide by Friday, when the Senate is anticipated to vote on whether or not or to not even take into account new witnesses and paperwork.
Mr. McConnell’s place is not any thriller: He’s working to line up his caucus in opposition to witnesses to carry the trial to a detailed within the coming days.
With out Ms. Murkowski, Democrats have little to no probability of profitable over 4 Republicans, the quantity they should name Mr. Bolton or different witnesses.
Activists have deliberate protests in and across the Capitol as we speak to point out assist for together with witnesses and extra proof within the Senate impeachment trial.
A whole lot of protesters are anticipated to assemble on the Hart Senate Workplace Constructing round midday earlier than transferring towards the Capitol, organizers say.
A number of protests have been deliberate by separate organizers, however the teams concerned are a primarily anti-Trump coalition of advocacy teams together with Public Citizen, the Poor People’s Campaign and the Girls’s March.
With the crucial vote looming on Friday on whether or not to name new witnesses in President Trump’s impeachment trial, Senate Republicans are coalescing round the concept that it’s higher to danger wanting like they ignored related proof than to plunge the Senate into an open-ended inquiry and anger President Trump.
Republicans are apprehensive that permitting testimony by John R. Bolton, the previous nationwide safety adviser whose unpublished manuscript contradicts a central a part of Mr. Trump’s impeachment protection, would solely result in a cascade of different witnesses, prolonging the trial and doubtlessly yielding extra damaging disclosures.
After a non-public social gathering assembly on Tuesday, prime Republicans have been more and more assured on Wednesday that they might maintain off witnesses, based on individuals near Senator Mitch McConnell, the bulk chief, who insisted on anonymity to characterize non-public discussions. And a few have been saying publicly that a part of their reasoning was that permitting any witnesses would open the floodgates and tie up the Senate indefinitely, although the eventual final result — Mr. Trump’s acquittal — stays the identical.
“We don’t want Mr. Bolton to return in and to increase this present longer, alongside…